Russia says Syrian government forces have crossed the Euphrates
River in their push to liberate the Dayr al-Zawr Province from Daesh,
ignoring a warning by a ragtag group of militants that receives US
backing.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday that
the Syrian army was already on the river's eastern side.

A commander with the SDF, Ahmed Abu Khawla, had earlier said that the
group would not "allow" the Syrian forces to get to the eastern bank of
the river.

Dayr al-Zawr is an important battleground. Daesh has mobilized its
forces and moved heavy weaponry to the province to make it its main
staging area in the face of increasing defeats elsewhere in thecountry.
The liberation of a stretch of land in Dayr-al-Zawr that
borders Iraq would be particularly important because it would stop the
Takfiri terrorists' cross-border transit between Syria and Iraq.

Syria's ultimate control of the oil-rich province would also help revive its economy.

Earlier in the month, the Syrian army and its allies reached Dayr
al-Zawr's provincial capital of the same name, which lies on the
Euphrates' western bank, breaking a nearly three-year-old Daesh siege on
government-held parts of the city. Days later, and as the combined
forces were building on their gains, the SDF said it was also launching
an attack on the province from Euphrates' eastern side.

The Syrian military, which is receiving advisory military help
from Iran and Russia and aerial cover from the Russian air force, has
said any force seeking to fight terrorism in Syria has to coordinate
with it. The US-backed SDF is not. Khawla, the SDF commander, has also
threatened that if his forces came under fire on the eastern bank of the
Euphrates, they would return the fire.

"We have notified the regime and Russia that we are coming to the
Euphrates riverbank, and they can see our forces advancing," he said on
Friday.

The group thus risks a confrontation with the Syrian and Russian
militaries. Also on Friday, a top aide to Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad said Syrian government troops and allied forces would fight any
force, including the US-backed militants, in their push to fully
liberate the Arab country.

Last Saturday, Ahmad al-Ahmad, who heads the armed Syrian opposition's
Syria Press center, said that the SDF did not have the manpower to
control Dayr al-Zawr. The army and its allies have already recaptured
Dayr al-Zawr's airbase, power station, and the Teym oilfield near the
city.

Newer gains

On Saturday, the troops made further gains in their battle against Daesh
pockets in central parts of the country. The government forces managed
to take full control of the villages of Duhour al-Khenzir, al-Shindakhia
al-Janobia, and Abu Tarraha in Jub al-Jarrah in the eastern countryside
of Homs Province.

In Hama Province, the army units, supported by allied forces, took control of the town of Qalib al-Thor.